Chuck's choices for the weekend of May 18, 2012

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

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New this week:

Carmen, circa 1940

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents Bizet's Carmen in rotating repertory with three other operas May 19 through June 23. Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center at 135 Edgar Road on the Webster University campus. The production is set in the 1940s, which has the potential to be an interesting approach, especially if they company does a "film noir" take on it; the libretto has many of the elements of classic noir as it is, so it shouldn't do any violence to the world of the opera. All performances are sung in English with projected English text. For more information, you may visit experienceopera.org or call 314-961-0644.

Rounding Third

HotCity Theatre presents Richard Dresser's Rounding Third, “a comedic and scary look at raising kids in a world where winning is everything,” Thursdays through Sundays through May 26. Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, visit www.hotcitytheatre.org or call 314-289-4063. In her review for 88.1 KDHX Andrea Braun has plenty of praise for the acting, direction, and for the script itself.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra continues its post-season concerts with a "pops" program featuring the music of Dvorák (three of his lovely Slavonic Dances), Gerswhin (the Rhapsody in Blue with piano soloist Sarina Zhang), Bernstein, Saint-Saëns, and Ravel (La Valse, the waltz to end all waltzes). Ward Stare conducts. The concert starts at 7:30 PM Friday at Powell Hall. Mr. Stare is a young conductor on the rise and deserving of notice while Sarina Zhang (also a major budding talent at the age of 18) has already made a name for herself with prizes in both piano and cello competitions and an appearance on From the Top. For more information, visit stlsymphony.org or call 314-534-1700.

Lola Van Ella

Show Me Burlesque has a series of events this weekend at different venues: The Show Me Burlesque Gala on Thursday at 8 PM at the Coliseum, 2619 Washington; the Show Me Spectacular on Friday at 8 PM at the Sheldon Concert Hall, 3654 Washington, followed by the Red Light District Revue upstairs at the Sheldon Ballroom starting at 11 PM; and Carnivalesque/The Beggar's Carnivale on Saturday at 8 PM at the Casa Loma Ballroom, 3354 Iowa. I'm probably going to miss the whole thing, but it's in my list because I just like the idea of having a lively burlesque scene here in St. Louis. Let's remember, after all, that this is the same town that once tried to ban the musical Hair because it has brief nudity and that presented a "bleeped" Chicago back in the early 1970s at the Muny. For more information, visit showmeburlesque.com.


Held over:

Stray Dog Theatre’s production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America concludes this this Thursday through Sunday at 7:30 PM with Part 2: Perestroika again. These are beautifully written plays and the Stray Dog production has gotten strong notices (see Andrea Braun’s reviews of Part 1 and Part 2 at the KDHX site). I saw part 1 last weekend and was very impressed. Stray Dog's stage doesn't allow for the rapid scene changes the script requires, but the production is otherwise so polished (and the scene change music so interesting) that it hardly matters. Performances take place at Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, call 314-865-1995.

Speaking of cheesy tech....

Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre (the bastard love child of St. Louis Shakespeare) presents Star Trek: Live! Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10:30 PM at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar in University City. The show is presented in cooperation with the St. Louis Science Center's Star Trek: The Experience Exhibit. Visitors to the exhibit receive a “buy one, get one free” admission to any 10:30 performance. In her review for 88.1 KDHX, Lilith Daly says the show moves at "maximum warp speed to the planet Ridiculous." If you’ve seen a Monkey show in the past, you know what to expect: deliberately and often hilariously cheesy tech, consciously hokey acting, and an attitude of nose-thumbing irreverence. For more information, visit stlshakespeare.org.